Engine arrives!

So, today is the day. After several false starts due to component failures and engineering failures to do with the gorilla who worked on my engine in a previous life, the date was today to fit the engine into Libby. It is interesting to note that come December I will have owned this car for 5 years, and I have never, ever, seen it in real life with an engine in. Excited? You bet?!

 First things first, whilst waiting for engine to arrive I was playing around with tank filler hoses. I have two, long and short, and after careful measuring, the short will fit with the long ones metal breather pipe. Need some clips, but at least I know I have one that will fit and work (Thanks to Marc Cheney who donated one from his garage as mine was MIA!)

 With Andy Roberts due to arrive, I had to make a quick trip to the shops to ensure I had the requisite supplies in stock! Andy, like me, is Irn-Bru powered!!!

 Bradley was the first to arrive, so we whipped off the bonnet and careful stored it resting on carpets and blankets. I really didn't want to scratch this!

 Eric Mc Triumph (this years RBRR steed) gazes on as Andy backs the trailer laden with a very very expensive garage ornament!

 ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, a V8 engine!!

 Now we had a few hours of fettling to do. Needed to fit the correct exhaust manifolds (these ones temporarily fitted to ensure the threads were ok and would torque up, and because the engine lift eyes connect to them! Also had to fit engine mounts and plates.

 Whilst Andy did that, I cleaned and fitted the correct gearbox loom which Andy generously donated. the eagled eyed will spot the additional isolator switch which allows for overdrive in 2nd, 3rd and 4th. (don't worry, it is an uprated overdrive!)

 Properly clean and painted manifolds going on.

 Before we actually fitted the engine, we knew we needed to rewire the engine bay. Being as the car originally had a MK1 engine and we were fitting a MKII, some changes needed to happen. We also wanted to correct some of Mr Lines's wiring bodges. Horns were a worry, especially when we found that two wires on the main horn circuit had a questionable connection.

 On closer investigation, two spade connectors, joined together using a piece of tin snipped out of a tobacco tin!!!!! Seriously!! Proper joints now in place!

 We investigated the horn wiring and couldn't work out why there was an additional horn switch on the centre console marked "Horns", when the proper horn switch on the end of the indicator stalk was still there. The car had never had proper twin-tone Triumph horns on it, but always had air horns.................. or so I thought! I had purchased a set of normal air horns to replace the crusty looking horrible things I took off which I presumed after lying dormant for 30 odd years would be scrap.
On closer investigation (thank god I didn't throw them away!!) it turns out the original air horns are "proper".......... Maserati Air Horns. So, they have a throw over relay inside. They should work off the stalk switch, but the "horn" switch on the console changes them between a continous "blast" and the musical scaling tones of a Maserati!!! Shame they don't work..................
Well, a drop of oil down the hole marked "oil", quick connection to a jump start pack...... they only flippin' well work don't they!!!!!
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeee haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

 I popped inside to make a cuppa, come back out with a brew for the workers and they nearly had it in!!!

 Engine mounts are a swine to put the bolts in when the engine is not designed to fit in this car. Almost 2 hours spent trying to bolt it up. But, its in.

 We then spent an hour or so, running the wiring loom, connecting, making new connectors, fitting the coil and basically going until we had really had enough.

How pleased am I? Epic, truely epic. As I said before, I have never seen this car with an engine in, and now it has one. Some more wiring to do, get the box in, radiator, plumb, exhausts, prop. etc etc. Lots to do, but at least its in!!!

Again, many many many thanks to Andy for building the engine and delivering it, and as usual to Bradley for his assistance as ever!

I'm back!

Well, we finally moved house on 11th April! It was a bit of a last minute rush to be honest and until I had the keys in my hand I really wasn't sure it could happen....... but it did!

So, our new house is a bit bigger than the old one, with more land (and its flat!!!) but the only downside is a smaller drive. I had a car park before, but now I have enough room for 2 parking spaces on the drive.

A bonus is the extra piece of land to the side, carefully hiding the caravan, which will have proper gates and give us a bit more room on the drive when its done.

The whole house needs decorating top to bottom, so I've been busy with paint brushes, wallpaper, carpets, curtains, shelves, wardrobes etc. Not finished yet, and I expect it not to be done until Christmas....... there's lots to do!

 Libby is home and tucked away in the garage, and I've not had chance to touch her until today. Got some shelves up in the garage to start sorting out the piles of crates and boxes. The boot is now empty, racking up with all the bits that need to go back on, and its a fairly small pile to be honest!

A flurry of activity the last few days as I prepare myself for this weekend...............................! I'll fill you in when it happens, but the biggest step of all is due to happen this weekend, I can hardly wait!!!!

Moving cars

Busy weekends at the moment, all concentrating on getting ready for the house move. I borrowed a proper legal braked and plated towing dolly from a friend (thanks Craig!) and loaded up Sam's Moggy first. I took the chance to fill the boot with garage stuff and then hauled it about 3 miles to my Mum's house. Her Mercedes is very kindly giving up its garage space to allow us to store out cars there until we move.

 I managed to get some longer rivets, so I finished off putting the trim strips on the tank cover.

 I then "threw in" the tank and put the trim in place. It will have to come out again as the tank needs to be painted, but for now I needed it back in for transport and to support the floor!

 I then "threw in" the spare wheel! Again, space and storage meant this was the easiest way!

 If you look really closely, you can spot the trim panel which needs re-trimming...................

 Boot filled with "stuff", on the dolly and over to my Mum's. I now have a (nearly) empty garage and more packing and sorting to do.

Due to the house move and the amount of work needed once we get there, this may be the last post for short while, I'll be back on it when I've done the decorating, fitted the new kitchen, done the kids rooms, boarded 2 lofts, sorted the garden out.................................why am I doing this again?!

Rear Bumper..... again!

Well, its been a while....... sorry! Been busy!

It's about to get busier too! It looks very much like we shall be moving house in about 4 weeks, so all the spare time is on sorting, packing etc etc. Where did all this rubbish accumulate from! Trying to be ruthless and not take junk. (don't worry, no Triumph parts have been harmed in this operation!) although moving house with 2 cars which don't run, the caravan, two other cars, a trailer, 2 children, 2 dogs.... the logistics of how we are going to do this is getting hard, but I think we have solved it all now!

 Anyway, it was a nice day and after a long walk in the park, the girls homework, lunch etc, Sam was home from work and Kiona went to a friends house for a play-date, so I had a couple of hours free this afternoon, right on with it!
First problem, which has been around for a while was the fit of the rear bumper. It just was not right. As soon as I pulled up the bolts for the quarter bumpers, they touched rear the arch. The flared rear arches are the prob;em but I just couldn't work out why they touched now when they didn't before. Eventually, it came to me. I examined the pictures of the strip down and found the issue. The "tube" going between the outer wing and the inner structure had been cut (badly!) to allow the wing to flare. The bolt was now squashing the two parts of the wing together, hence the clearance issues. How did Mr Lines get round  this? He simply bolted the quarter bumper to the outer wing only!!!!!!! Really?
I need to tow with this, so I wanted a bit more strength than that. So, I cut some Zinc plated square spacers so they would slot over the bolt, eased the wing out, popped them in and tightened it up. Trial and error showed that 3 spacers gave the right clearance. Bumper tight, clearance between bumper and wing. Result!!
Until the captive popped in the quarter bumper!!
Grrrrrr!
Quarter bumper off, captive out, new captive nut, bend the tabs back, refit. Drop the spacers down the inside of the inner wing, use magnet on a stick to retrieve. Refit..... again. Done.

 I then finally finished gluing the tank cover carpet. I cleaned up the stainless trims only to discover the holes in the wood are bigger than the rest, and the rivets I have been using just pull through. I need some bigger rivets with larger washer on the base.

By this time, it was time to clear and go and fetch Kiona. At least I have solved the bumper issue now. Just need to get another 3 spacers and repeat on the other side.

More trimming and gluing!

Thanks to Ted Taylor for the spare rubbing strip that I was missing. I cleaned it, shortened it and popped it in to complete the back cover for the rear seat. Interestingly, when I was trying to work out the best way to shorten the strip, I looked at the originals and they all seem to have a "hand finished" look at the end, much like a whittled down pencil. I concluded this was probably how they did it at Carbodies, so I took my stanley knife and whittled away! It looks just as good (or as bad!) as the originals now.

 Next piece of trim, one of the sections of the boot floor. Same as all the others, dull aluminium strips, dirty rubber infills, awful carpet.

 Remove the strips, drill out the pop rivets and pull of the manky old carpet.

 It was fairly easy to measure, centre and glue the new carpet into place. The corners are more of a challenge and this piece has a strip of vinyl to tuck under for the spare wheel section.

 Whilst it was drying I polished up the aluminum strips, cleaned the rubber infills and then reassembled the whole thing. It does take time to do this right, this piece took about 2 hours from start to finish, but I think the end results are worth the time.

 Next was to fit the trim board to the back of the rear seat. It slots into place and is held in place by 6 screws. These are right at the edges, hence before I couldn't glue the whole things down. With the screws refitted I could then finally glue down all the edges.

 Put that piece to one side to dry and I started on the tank cover. Same as usual, horrible original faded carpet.

 I did the tank filler neck cover first, this was probably the easiest bit I have done so far!

 This bit was interesting. This piece has a metal ledge pop riveted on to support the next trim piece which is the spare wheel cover. The vinyl wraparound has to be sandwiched between the board and the metal plate, whilst keeping it in the right place. Tricky, but I think I got it.

 I could then glue and pull the cover over onto the front, and then trim the corners. Glue EVERYWHERE!

 This piece will take some drying so I put it away to dry overnight. Light was fading at this point so I deiced to fit the rear seat and the trim panel behind it to get them out of the way and somewhere safe. I decided the car was probably the safest place for them. I am so pleased how this looks. Its been alot of work to get to this point and I think it looks superb. I'm sure a professional trimmer could have done a better job much quicker, but the satisfaction of doing it all myself was worth it.